Alert! 5G iPhone SE coming in March, 2022

The new 5G iPhone will be the first update to the iPhone SE model in two years and will feature 5G network capabilities, report mentioned.

Apple to unveil a low-cost 5G iPhone SE 3 in March. (AFP)

Apple Inc is targeting a date on or near March 8 to unveil a low-cost 5G iPhone and an updated iPad, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing people with knowledge of the matter. According to the report, the new iPhone will be the first update to the iPhone SE model in two years and will feature 5G network capabilities, an improved camera and a faster processor.

Apple in October announced two new MacBook Pro models that run on more powerful in-house chips. With the expected launch still more than a month away, Apple's plans may change in the face of production delays or other changes, the report added.

The company did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Cupertino, California-based Apple is overcoming the costly global shortage in computer chips and posted record sales over the holiday quarter in January, beating profit estimates and forecasting that its shortfall is narrowing.

Apple Wins a New Trial in $1.1 Billion Caltech Patent Case

(Bloomberg) Apple Inc. and Broadcom Inc. will get a new trial on damages in an infringement case over California Institute of Technology patents on Wi-Fi technology, after a U.S. appeals court vacated a $1.1 billion verdict the school won in 2020.

A two-tier damage award of damages of $270.2 million against Broadcom and $837.8 million against Apple that involved different royalty rates from each company is “legally unsupportable,” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington ruled.

The court also affirmed the jury finding that Apple and Broadcom infringed two CalTech patents, but ordered a new trial of infringement on a third patent. One of the three judges on the panel said he would have thrown the whole case out, believing none of the patents were infringed.

The January 2020 verdict was one of the largest jury awards in a patent case in U.S. history, based in part on the broad range of Apple products that were accused of using the university's inventions for wireless data transmissions. The case targeted Broadcom chips and any Apple smartphone, tablet or computer that that has one.

CalTech argued that it would have negotiated two licenses -- one with Broadcom for chips that weren't sold to Apple, and then with Apple for the devices that included Broadcom chips “at a vastly different royalty rate,” according to the opinion.

“The mere fact that Broadcom and Apple are separate infringers alone does not support treating the same chips differently at different stages in the supply chain and does not justify submitting such a two-tier damage theory to the jury,” the Federal Circuit ruled.

“In the absence of a compelling showing otherwise, a higher royalty is not available for the same device at a different point in the supply chain,” according to the court.

In an unrelated case involving patent claims against Apple, a different three-judge Federal Circuit panel ordered a new trial on damages in a $85.23 million verdict won by Quarterhill Inc.'s Wi-Lan over a way to allocate bandwidth in wireless communications.

The court ruled that Wi-Lan's damages expert used a “flawed” methodology that was “untethered to the facts of this case,” but also that the trial court erred in ruling that Apple iPhones with Intel Corp. chips had a perpetual license to the Wi-Lan patent.

The cases are California Institute v Broadcom, 20-2222, and Apple Inc. v. Wi-Lan Inc., 20-2011, both U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Washington).